Thursday, September 1st

6pm @ ColdTowne Theater This venue is cash only. Pay once, stay as long as you want


Cast:Robin Goodfellow, Arthur Simone

Buddy Daddy

Austin

Buddy Daddy is an improvised journey brought to you by a man, Arthur Simone, and his best friend, Robin Goodfellow. The show veers controllably into the surreal and touches on tough societal issues like where to pee.


Cast:Matthew Derman, Meredith Newell, Brad Temple, Ann Armstrong, Joel Usher, Jacob Ellenberg, Sam Van Metre, Sam Malcolm, Adam Trabka, Stephanie Hagemeister

Journey to the Big Water

Austin, TX

Think of a world you want to explore. Got it? Good. Now let Journey to the Big Water take you there. Inspired equally by the Harold and Close Quarters, Journey to the Big Water's uniquely large cast creates comedic scenes taking place in different parts of very connected and often times absurd worlds.

Journey to the Big Water is ColdTowne Theater's 9th student troupe and brings together a group of ten individuals supremely talented both onstage and off. They love each other very, very much.


Cast:Stephanie Russo, Joshua Krilov

Billy Icon

Austin

Billy Icon fuses character driven scene work and physical play into a thirty minute longform improv piece. The show starts off with a relationship between two characters and the world expands as Stephanie and Josh create new characters that interweave with one another.

Stephanie and Josh have both performed at various improv festivals across the US such as Del Close, Out of Bounds, Phoenix Improv Festival, and New Orleans Improv Festival. Josh is a member of the artistic committee and the faculty at ColdTowne Theater. He is the creator of The Night Show with Joshua Krilov, coach of several troupes, and a core member of Literacy to Life. He is also a member of Stool Pigeon, Elevator Action, Red Giant, Uncle Dan, and Billy Icon. Stephanie is one half of the French lounge duo Le Sexy and is involved in various improv projects such as Sarah 7, Red Giant, Uncle Dan, and Billy Icon.


Cast:Kyle Bradford, Jeff Swearingen , James Chandler, Brian Kinkade , Colleen O'Connor

The Victims

Dallas, TX

The Victims start their show by interviewing a member of the audience, and then using whatever the person says as material for their show. The Victims' shows are not for the light of heart. They don't mean to say bad things; bad things just kinda come out of their mouths.

The Victims, which spawned The Alternative Comedy Theater, has been bringing highly theatrical, unscripted comedic mayhem to the world since 2006. The Victims perform regularly in Dallas, TX and at comedy festivals and venues all over the country including The Broadway Comedy Club (NYC), Coldtowne Theater (Austin, TX), Ghostlight Theater Club (Oklahoma City) Satori Coffee House (Mobile, AL), The Hideout Theatre (Austin, TX) and The Parkside Lounge (NYC).

"These guys are exciting to watch and will have you rolling on the floor" - LIT Monthly

"Absolutely hilarious..." - The Vanguard

"The Victims is a Dallas Treasure." - Digital City

"... the veteran Victims crafted cohesion, keeping the audience engaged and entertained by their togetherness." - Pegasusnews.com

Previous Festival Appearances:
- The Big Sexy Weekend of Improv (Dallas, TX)
- Out of Bounds (Austin, TX)
- The Out of the Loop Fringe Festival (Dallas, TX)
- The Black Box Improv Festival (Atlanta, Georgia)


Cast:Dave Buckman, Nick Ramirez

Dick Rambuck

Austin, TX

Dick Rambuck performs a slow-paced, 2-person mono-scene. Nick and Dave each take a suggestion from the audience to open the show, and use those suggestions to inspire characters and develop themes and relationships.

Starting as a CageMatch team incorporating an improv teacher and student, Dick Rambuck has quietly become a cult favorite with Austin audiences. Every Dick Rambuck show is a single scene: a patient, thought-provoking conversation between two knuckleheads. The single-scene show format allows for a slower pace, strongly developed characters, and hilarious callbacks.

Previous Festival Appearances:
- Out of Bounds 2010
- Austin Improv Collective Cagematch Champions


Cast:Curt Coy, James Murray, Mary Murray, Christopher Curtis, Tyler Bryce, and Kenny Madison with special guest monologist Owen Egerton

Red Dirt Improv

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Red Dirt Improv will perform an Armando--improvised scenes inspired by stories shared by a guest monologist. Red Dirt's version of the Armando is best known for its mix of quick, inventive scenes with longer, slow-brewed scenes. Red Dirt is proud to have special guest monologist Owen Egerton.

Red Dirt Improv was founded in 2007; many of its members began performing together 10 years ago with O.U. Improv! Regularly appearing at OKC's IAO Gallery and The Prohibition Room, Red Dirt performs a razor-sharp combination of short and long form improv. The members of Red Dirt are also the proud hosts of Improv Festival Oklahoma, which just celebrated its third year.

The troupe is currently under the direction of Tyler Bryce, a 20-year improv veteran who got his start in Austin performing with several troupes, including: ComedySportz Austin, the Cheese Pistols, and Monk's Night Out. Michael Barnes of the Austin American Statesman has said that Tyler "...explodes with manic invention."

Previous Festival Appearances:
- The Big Sexy (Dallas)
- Improv Festival Oklahoma"


Cast:Dan Grimm, Tina Jackson

Never Pickles

Austin, TX / Chicago, IL

Never Pickles is improv for lovers and morons.

Dan Grimm and Tina Jackson have had a close and perpetually-complicated relationship for the past two and a half years, and know each other inside and out. Their performance style is bold and completely trusting. Their patient scenes hit on deep emotions not normally reached by quicker shows.

Previous Festival Appearances:
- The Big-Little Comedy Fest, Grand Rapids MI (8/10)
- The Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, Austin TX (9/10)
- The Dallas Comedy Festival, Dallas TX (3/11)


Cast:Drew Wesely, Lance Gilstrap, David Hess, Kaci Beeler, Gene Joe, Curtis Luciani, Nick Ramirez, Jericho Thorp

Victrola

Austin

Sirs and Madams, please forgive the interruption. We would kindly like a moment of your time to direct your attention to their latest jocular endeavor, Victrola - fully improvised comedic tales of humorousness performed completely and utterly in the dark!

A noteworthy menagerie of performers, joke-tellers and vocal acrobaticists shall assemble for the purpose of creating half hour-long blocks of live, audiophonic comedy performance without the aid of lighting, artificial or otherwise..

At tremendous expense and procured at great difficulty, we are proud to feature the comedic recitations of our cast, assembled from Austin-City's most famed and beloved improvisational ensembles: Andrew Wesely, Jericho Thorp, Lance Gilstrap, Nick Ramirez, Josh Krilov, David Hess, Gene Joe and Curtis Luciani. Under the tutelage of esteemed director Michael Jastroch, Victrola's stable of aural oddities is unrivaled in the Western Hemisphere.


Cast:Scott Moss, Brent Foshee

Jorak and Jorak Do Movie

Austin, Tx

Jorak and Jorak are two Eastern European brothers who have a movie theater. The only problem seems to be that never actually have an actual movie to show the audience. Their solution? They simply attempt to do the movie themselves and, of course, hilarity ensues. Aside from taking your money and not showing you a film, they may also attempt to sell you food and whatever they happen to have in the truck they "found" behind the theater.

Jorak and Jorak have been hailed by the Dorogobuzh Plow and Press as "Very good... better than watching mule sleep." and the Gubkinsky Soil Report says "Jorak is handsome like stalk of corn without bugs but other Jorak smell like garbage behind apartment block number 521. They sell us good cheese cracker though."


Cast:Antoine Culbreath , Lisa Friedrich , Ryan Heine , Amy Birkhead , Michael Aschner , Omar Adam , Adam Pecht , Susan Serota , Chris Oddo

Rogue Improv

Houston, Texas

Rogue Improv will perform the signature 30 minute Harold with a "wheels off, infinite possibilities" organic opening, exploring what all the suggestion represents, developing theme and the foundation for steady, meat-filled scenes and playful group games. Rogue dedicates itself to playing to the height of intelligence, being affected, and making bold, surprising choices resulting in comedic yet compelling improvised theater.

Rogue Improv is Houston's premiere long form improv ensemble and training center, performing weekly at Rudyard's British Pub. Rogue's classes focus on grounded scene work and truthful initiation/response. Rogue seeks the smart choices over transparent cleverness, providing compelling theater through commitment in a high stakes scenic universe. Rogue's mission includes developing players with an "improv arsenal" including the fun "icing" on the show - creative edits, tag outs, environmental support, and split scenes - to PLAY while serving the tone of the comedic world created.

Previous Festival Appearances:
- 2011 Interstate Fringe Festival - New Orleans and Houston - http://nofringe.org/
- 2010 Houston Fringe Festival - Frenetic Theater
- 2010 Fall Megaphone Marathons - The New Movement Theater, Austin, TX


Cast:Jeffery Moffitt, Cherami Khuene, Tom Reisenbichler, Liz Robinson

The Hindenburgs

Dallas

The Hindenburgs create an unscripted, beginning-to-end storyline based on random suggestions from the audience. Cherami, Jeffery, Tom, and Liz introduce, develop, and navigate their characters using a series of tag-outs as the characters continue full speed ahead towards the unknown conclusion.

The Hindenburgs started their journey into improv together over two years at the Alternative Comedy Theater in Dallas and began performing as a troupe in December 2009. Cherami, Jeffery, Tom, and Liz are all students with a background in theatrical performance who enjoy tossing out the script to experiment with various long form styles.

Previous Festival Appearances:
- The Big Sexy Improv Festival 2010 and 2011


Cast:Bill Binder, Shane Shannon, Jose Gonzalez, Mark Jordan, Jon Jahrmarkt

Galapagos

Phoenix, AZ

Galapagos performances are centered on a central scene, often spinning off filling in the details of our world. Each performance attempts to explore a central theme invoked from our audience to enhance our play. Each festival presents a different environment for Galapagos to adapt to.

Galapagos was formed in the Fall of 2003 and is devoted to performing longform improvisation based in strong ensemble work and characters & scenes rooted in truth. Our improvisation is often in the form of Harold, a structure and philosophy of improv developed by Del Close at ImprovOlympic in Chicago, the Deconstruction, the Armando, and include longform structures that we have developed ourselves. Whatever the specific form is, a single audience suggestion serves to inspire our explorations. Galapagos is one of the founding troupes of Arizona's Torch Theatre and has performed at over two dozen festivals around North America.

Previous Festival Appearances:
- New Orleans Improv Festival 2007
- Gila Monster Improv Festival 2007
- Phoenix Improv Festival 2003-2011
- Del Close Marathon 2005-2010
- Chicago Improv Festival 2006


Cast:Erika May-McNichol, Jenny Carlson, Katie Sicking, Elizabeth Brammer, Teresa Kubos, Stephanie Russo

Sarah 7

Austin, TX

Sarah 7 is seven of the fabulous women-none of which are currently named Sarah, but who can tell what the future holds. The Sarahs perform a fast and fun show inspired by monologs that reveal personal secrets about these classy ladies with questionable virtue and taste.

Sarah 7 was formed in 2009 in order to compete in the ColdTowne Theater CageMatch. They were a huge hit and had a fantastically fun time together, and decided to keep on keeping on. As it has been said 'The improv isn't fun because it's good. It's good because it's fun.' And that may not be truer for any group than it is for Sarah 7.

Previous Festival Appearances:
- Out of Bounds 2010
- Ladies are Funny Festival 2010
- Frontera Fest 2011.


Cast:Danny Catlow, Byron Brown, Brett Tribe, Adam Trabka

Bad Boys

Austin, TX

Bad Boys start by taking the suggestion of absolutely anything from the audience before invoking that suggestions presence into the room and using that to inform a show that balances grounded scene work with high energy games connected by organic transitions.

Bad Boys are four graduates of the ColdTowne Theater Conservatory in Austin, TX. They came together as a troupe early on in their classes and have been putting on high energy, stream of consciousness game-driven shows together ever since. Bad Boys perform without a net, because they have each other.